Hunkering Down

Rich Tandler

02/24/2006

The clock is ticking at Redskins Park with a week left to go
before free agency. That happens every year in late February, but the
difference in 2006 is that nobody knows what's going to happen when the clock
strikes midnight.

Vinny Cerrato said a lot about the Redskins cap situation on
Thursday by saying very little on WTEM in Washington.

If there is a Collective Bargaining Agreement, we can
answer a lot of our questions in free agency. If there's not a Collective
Bargaining Agreement, which we should know hopefully in the next few days, then
we'll be doing most of our [player acquisitions] in the draft.

In other words, the Redskins will have plenty of cap room to
spend should the CBA get extended. An extension would likely carry the dual
benefits of a higher cap, probably in the neighborhood of $110 million, and an
easier environment in which to redo contracts. Washington could file a little
paperwork, perhaps release a player or two and then start the preflight
checklist for Redskin One to start ferrying prospects to Ashburn

Without a new CBA, however, the Redskins will be severely
pinched to squeeze in under the cap as we talked about here earlier
this week. First the Turk, normally a staple during training camp, will be
making premature visits to perhaps as many as a dozen players, telling them
that the coach wants to see them and, oh yes, bring your playbook. Players'
agents will be in the lobby and on the phone, as they try to hammer out new
deals that will shuffle enough money in the right way so as to provide cap
relief but still remain within the guidelines of the CBA. It will take every
bit of creative accounting to get the Redskins under the cap and have enough room
to sign their draft picks and leave room for an injury replacement or two.

If one were to listen to what NFLPA chief Gene Upshaw said
today it's would appear that the latter scenario is the one that the Redskins
will be dealing with. After speaking with a group of player agents today,
Upshaw seemed quite pessimistic that a deal would be reached:

Unless something is going on ... that I've not seen in
the last day or two, we're just not there yet. I'm not putting a lot of faith
in that we're going to reach agreement in the next couple of days.

Of course, all of that talk could be just that, talk, a
negotiating tactic. There are rumors that the deal is close and it would take
just one breakthrough to get it done.

Complicating the matter further is the fact that the NFL has
yet to announce exactly what the salary cap for 2006 will be absent a new CBA.
It could be anywhere from $92 million to $95 million. Those three million
dollars make a big difference for a team that will be needed to squeeze every
dime. On top of that, every contract signed and renegotiated will have
ramifications through future years. The 2007 season may be uncapped, it may not
be if a CBA is reached sometime in the next few months. The Redskins will have
to take their best guess at what will happen down the line.

All of this means that the Redskins not only have a Plan A
and a Plan B, but because of all of the possible dimensions and permutations
their stacks of plans likely run through most of the alphabet. The Excel
spreadsheet used to calculate the cap must have entries in Row 782, Column CZ.

And those are just the contingencies dealing directly with
the salary cap. Cerrato, Joe Gibbs, and the rest of the scouts and coaches have
to evaluate free agents that the Redskins may or may not be able sign and start
figuring out how to replace players that they may or may not have to cut.

Some are seeing other teams releasing players and redoing
contracts already and wondering why the Redskins have yet to announce anything
more than the signing of long snapper Ethan Albright. The complexity of the
Redskins' situation dictates that virtually everything takes place at the last
minute. The elements of each plan are intertwined and it's likely that very few
if any potential moves are common to all of the plans. There is no point in
playing your cards early when the potential gain is minimal and the possible consequences
of making the wrong move are very damaging.

Those of you who have been complaining that it's been too
dull be patient. Things will begin to heat up in the next several days as the
clock keeps ticking.